A potable liquid bottle, such as a water bottle for a water cooler or similar dispenser, is usually provided with a cap to close and seal a discharge opening on the neck of the bottle during storage, transportation, and manipulation of the bottle. Of course, other than water, the potable liquid contained in the bottle can also be juice, soft drink, or any other type of drinkable liquid.
The cap prevents inadvertent spilling of liquid from the bottle and contamination of the liquid by exposure to the environment. The cap also ensures that hygienic conditions exist on surfaces of the neck of the bottle and around the discharge opening on which liquid flowing out of the bottle will come into direct contact with. Typically, the cap is made of a polymeric material and includes a tension ring or the like that provides a radial force for retaining the cap on the neck of the bottle. The cap also generally includes a line of weakness that facilitates tearing or rupturing of the cap material by a manual pull when the cap is to be removed from the bottle.
Frequently, however, a tear of the cap material propagating along the line of weakness propagates along the entire periphery of the cap, which causes a first portion of the cap on which the manual pull is applied to be completely detached from a second portion of the cap which remains fixed on the neck of the bottle. In other words, conventional caps do not include any means to prevent complete separation of the first portion of the cap on which the manual pull is applied from the second portion. It then becomes difficult to remove the second portion remaining on the neck of the bottle since there no longer is sufficient cap material to provide a grip to apply the manual pull. Moreover, the difficulty in removing the cap is compounded by the presence of the tension ring which usually remains on the cap as part of the second portion. In fact, even without the difficulty arising from complete separation of the first and second portions of the cap, conventional caps do not include any means to reduce the retaining force exerted by the tension ring on the neck of the bottle when the cap is to be removed from the bottle, which often creates unnecessary difficulty in removing the cap.
In addition, in order to complement the hygienic conditions ensured by the cap, a protective sheath, sleeve, or wrap made of a polymeric material is sometimes used to cover a portion of the neck of the bottle and the cap. The protective sheath typically covers the entire cap and a portion of the neck of the bottle below the cap, since these elements are the ones most frequently contacted during manipulation of the bottle.
Now, the neck of the bottle generally has an annular recessed area below the upper edge of the neck. However, the dimensions of a conventional cap are such that the cap extends beyond the lower limit of the annular recessed area of the neck. As a result, the protective sheath essentially conforms to the outer surface of the cap and is prevented from conforming to at least a portion of the annular recessed area of the neck. The resulting configuration of the protective sheath is such that there is a tendency for axial sliding of the protective sheath on the cap and on the portion of the neck of the bottle below the cap during manipulation of the bottle. In turn, the axial sliding of the protective sheath can lead to an increase in the area of the neck of the bottle and the cap that is exposed to direct contact with human hands during manipulation of the bottle, which is detrimental to the hygienic conditions of the bottle.
While various solutions to the above problems have been proposed, none of these is satisfactory and thus there remains a need in the industry to provide a threadless cap for closing a potable liquid bottle that alleviates at least in part the problems associated with existing caps.